


Return To Me

by The_Unqualified1



Category: The Locked Tomb Trilogy | Gideon the Ninth Series - Tamsyn Muir
Genre: After the Spike, But I haven’t Read Harrow Yet, Cam is there for a second, F/F, First Kiss, Gideon the Ninth Spoilers, Reunited Conversations, Tension, Y’all this book is poetry I hope I do it justice, talking feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-15 02:34:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29552187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Unqualified1/pseuds/The_Unqualified1
Summary: Gideon is back in her body. Through nothing short of a miracle.But Harrow is weary. Splitting the Lyctor back to two was no easy feat.She couldn’t possibly do it again... nor can she chance loosing the first flower of the ninth.
Relationships: Gideon Nav/Harrowhark Nonagesimus
Comments: 6
Kudos: 34





	Return To Me

**Author's Note:**

> Hey ya’ll!
> 
> So I read Gideon the Ninth and lost my mind. It’s so freaking good. I haven’t started Harrow yet, but I had this little nugget.
> 
> I just wanted to write this scene that was Harrow and Gideon after everything that happened. Imagine they’re reunited post spike, what’s that vibe like?
> 
> And I know once I read Harrow this scene won’t matter 😂 but screw it, I wanted to write it. Enjoy!!!

Gideon lay in a cot getting used to her heart beating again.  _ Bed rest doesn’t suit you _ . Had been Camila’s passing comment of the day. Not wrong. She hated it. But being back at all wasn’t just against the odds it was a complete batshit oddity. Ask any Lyctor, Necro or person with common sense. She shouldn’t be here at all. But somehow she was...

Harrow had found a way.

What she did remember was a sudden suffocating feeling followed by pain, lots of pain. Like her molecules were breaking in half and then smaller and then stitching back together.

She’d come back to her body screaming... sweating... panting...

Harrowhawk had been doing the same. She was knelt overtop Gideon, knees on either side, hands pressing into the ground beside her, blood sweat dripped down her forehead, and pooling onto Gideon’s cheeks. Her eyes draining from a very familiar gold to ash and brown.

Gideon could barely lift her head. Her eyes only opened a fraction with the full body fatigue she was experiencing.

“ _Griddle_...? ” She heard through broken breaths, seeing the desperation and the intense way she was peering into her.

“Sup... loser.” She managed feebly.

Then the ninth necromancer sighed, punched her shoulder, and collapsed on top of her.

Now she was here... back in the world of the waking. She wondered about Harrow. She must’ve been in as rough a shape as Gideon herself. What had been done and undone was against nature. It was like... paint. You could mix two colors to create something new, but those pigments could never be pulled back apart. But somehow they had. And now they each were left with flecks of each other sparkled in their DNA.

She really was something to be admired.

And then as she had let her mind drift to the woman in question, Harrow herself had walked into the room. Gideon looked up from her cot. She was... happy to see her. And chanced a thin smile. There was no discernible expression on her painted face, which was strange. Until she blankly said- “You’re staying behind.”

“Like hell I am sugartits.” Gideon said, rising and then immediately regretting it, clutching at the sore spot in her chest. Where the pain lingered from the iron spike. Understandable. That injury had been worse than death, so it still hurt like hell. She’d notice the Reverend Daughter clutching the same spot to from time to time, but neglected to draw attention to it.

“You didn’t bring me back to sit me in a room and hold me like a trophy. I’m still your cavalier.”

“That’s the problem Nav.” She said, neglecting to look at her and staring instead at a spot on the floor that was very interesting. Apparently more so then her undead ward standing before her.

“You’re not making sense.” Honestly, what else was new. “So until you are I’m just going to repeat my stance. I am coming with you, and you’ve got less brains than all your constructs combined if you think anything otherwise.”

“You’re staying. That’s an order. If duty is suddenly so important to you, at least obey that.”

“Bullshit, and it never was.” Gideon scowled and sighed a deep breath, softening her tone. “I told you... I only care about  _ you _ .”

It was Harrow’s turn to scowl, still not facing her. Gideon was starting to think she was a fool for thinking things would be different. Lyctorhood hadn’t suddenly made her a new person, just a more powerful one. They still had a lot of ground to cover. Gideon felt itchy. Speaking her feelings without being under the threat of death was wildly uncomfortable.

“Anyway, you’re going to have a hard time wielding that rapier without me all up inside you.” Yeah, it sounded stupid, but she was mad so screw it.

“You’re an idiot Griddle.” She breathed, still scowling at the ground.

“Oh and you’re not? Thinking you’re walking into this battle without me is pretty fucking stupid by most standards.”

“But now I know what lengths you’ll go to!” Harrow spat back. Anger on her face falling away to something sorrow-laden. “Now I  _know_. ”

She looked at her briefly now, and there was panic in the way she bit her lip and the way her eyes scanned her face as if cataloging the details should it be the last. She walked toward her suddenly and fisted a hand in the font of her robes.

“You broke me that day Gideon Nav... I am not keen to be undone again.”

_ Oh shit... _

Gideon blinked at her proximity and the gravity of her words. She had broken the unbreakable ninth. She remembered the moment clearly. It had been replaying in her unconscious thoughts ever since.

_ What are you doing? _

_ The cruelest thing anyone ever has to you, believe me. _

She’d been right. It was. And now... her being back meant she could do it again. And Harrowhawk desperately feared it.

“Harrow...”

“Don’t.” She said, bowing her head and resting it along the front of Gideon’s robes. “ _Don’t try and tell me what I want to hear_.”

It’d be impossible to.

“Harrow stop blubbering, and look at me...” Gideon said softly. She cautiously wrapped an arm around her hip. Harrow didn’t break it. That was a good sign. When she did look up there were angry little tears converging at the corners of her eyes. She breathed in, still getting used to the color.... flecks of gold dotting what was once ash black. Beautiful...

“I’m not sorry for what I did.” Gideon said. Watching the slight curve of her brow deepen. “I can’t be. I meant what I said... the whole point of me...  is _you_ .” Her throat felt hella dry all of a sudden.

“I meant it.” She repeated. “And if I thought it would save your ass all over again... I’m not saying I’m  _ dying _ to die for you... but I would do it. I would.”

Gideon felt the pain in her chest blooming and spreading at the memory.

“One flesh. One-“

_ “ _ _Stop it_. ” Harrow breathed, visibly shaking. Teeth grit. Fist tightening in her robes. “A necromancer should never watch their cavalier die...”

“A cavalier should never part from their adept.” Gideon challenged back. “And I  didn’t. I was there. The whole time.”

Now silence passed. Because Gideon knew she was right. And she knew Harrow knew she was right. And she knew they both knew that she knew she was right. It didn’t make it any less shitty. Any less sour and vile what had happened.

Her hand grazed something on Harrow’s belt loop and she instantly realized what it was. Hanging by the side of one of the frames... 

Her sunglasses. _She’d kept them_. That made her feel larger than the Emperor himself...

She decided to do something stupid and bold. It had worked for her in the past. She slid the glasses free, flicking them softly and turning them to place over Harrow’s eyes. She didn’t fight her, though inhaled in a small, dignified yelp.

“If it makes you feel any better, I think it was kind of a one time thing.” She tried casually. Talking to her own reflection was easier than seeing the depths to which she’d hurt her. “After going through all the trouble to tear our souls apart I don’t think they’ll so easily splice back together. So spikes wont be an option.”

“No... I suppose not.” Harrow said. She seemed calmer now, but maybe that was the benefit of the shades blocking her eyes. It gave her cover to feel what she was feeling. “In any case, I ban you from being within ten feet of one ever again.”

Gideon chuckled, watching the two oblong versions of herself in the lenses do the same. “I suppose I can give you that.”

“And you will retreat at my first call.”

“Fair enough... but I can’t promise I wont bitch about it.”

“You could, but I wouldn’t believe you.” Harrow continued. She could sense her beady little eyes darting behind the lenses but she let her take her time.

“And if you are hurt... you must tell me. Showboating isn’t very impressive if you’re worm food at the end of it. And I swear, Nav, if you become worm food on our first mission back I will reanimate your bones to do very unsavory tasks for a very long time. Your remains shall never know peace.”

A strangely caring threat.

“Aye aye.” She nodded. “Anything else?” 

Harrow seemed to pause, her lips slightly parted in thought. Perhaps trying to summon a few more nonsensical and detailed cryptids. What she did instead was yank her shirt, pulling her downward. She blinked in surprise at the position they found themselves in, lips pressed flush against each other. Bodies close. Both of her little boney hands against her cheeks, one sliding back to wrap into her hair.

_Oh shit._

Gideon’s instincts kicked past initial shock, and she brought both arms around her waist to pull her impossibly closer. Yes there souls had just agreed to have some time apart, but their bodies apparently hadn’t gotten the memo.

_Shit, we’re really doing this._

She let her eyes flutter shut and focus on the sensation. Her lips were warm, but her heart felt like it was on-fucking-fire. Harrow pressed into her with force, as if that could keep her from slipping away. Gideon matched it. Her breath tasted, not bad. She couldn’t imagine a time breath would taste good, but it certainly wasn’t bad. And as she sensed her pulling away, she pressed back. Not quite ready to let it go. She was still trying... still searching for the bits. Their noses brushed and she was sure she’d have some of that stupid black paint smeared across her face, but couldn’t find it to care. Her throat hummed soft and it vibrated down through the rest of her. And beyond it all there were these little dots of light dancing across the back of her mind. It felt like their souls were sharing the parts they’d lost. Dipping back and forth between them over and over.

It was stupidly brilliant.

When it came to an end Gideon let them pull apart so they could be face to face once more. Bastard still had the sunglasses so it was only her left stupidly mouth agape, eyes half-lidded but burning. Two little reflections mirroring back at her.

“So... we’re doing that now?” Gideon asked, still only kinda breathing normal. Mostly still seeing stars.

“ _ Griddle _ ...” Harrow mumbled, arms sliding around her neck. Refusing to let her go. Not that Gideon was in any hurry.

“I lost you before and went on a homicidal journey fueled by God to bring death to the galaxy. I do not know what I would be capable of were I to loose you again.”

Gideon leaned in to press their foreheads together and sighed.  _She pitied the universe that had to find out_. Instead she said “Careful Nonagesimus. You’re sounding soft.”

“That’s not what your mom said.” And Gideon couldn’t stifle the laugh that came after. But the beautiful thing was, neither could Harrow. She saw the soft way her lips curled and her head shook.  _She definitely got that from hanging out with my soul_.

**Author's Note:**

> So there’s that!
> 
> I added a lil smooch cause these two should smooch. Everyone needs a good smooch. But y’all these two are so freaking fun. Gideon can say the craziest things. Harrow is so eloquent. Even like picking which word she uses for Gideon, Griddle, Nav etc. felt like a big choice.
> 
> Thanks for reading it yall. Only a little longer til we get Alecto ❤️


End file.
